Seven Days Battles

And further in Jackson, he found a man who could execute the strategic will with unsparing ferocity.

But then the budding partnership was dimmed by what we covered last time, Jackson's poor performance in the Seven Days campaign to save Richmond.

When Lee, unexpectedly elevated to supreme field command following the wounding of Joseph E. Johnston at Seven Pines, summoned his Valley hero to the sweltering lowlands of the peninsula in late June to unleash the Seven Days campaign battles, Jackson arrived from the mountains hollowed out.

He had not slept properly in weeks.

His nervous energy was utterly depleted, and the heavy, humid air of the tidewater swamps seemed to induce in him a strange lethargy wholly at odds with his reputation and personality.

They lacked training and were deficient in arms.

Others had just returned from the Peninsular Campaign, where Lee's army had driven them from the gates of Richmond in the Seven Days Battle, June 26 to July 2.

Still others were the remnants of the force so decisively beaten at Second Manassas.

In McClellan, the Union army had a commander who was skilled at organization.

He was cautious.

He seemed to lack the capacity for full and violent commitment essential to victory.

Against Lee, whose blood roused at the sound of the guns, McClellan's methodical nature had once before proved wanting during the Seven Days Battles.

At least, so thought President Lincoln.

They lacked training and were deficient in arms.

Others had just returned from the Peninsular Campaign, where Lee's army had driven them from the gates of Richmond in the Seven Days Battle, June 26 to July 2nd.

Still others were the remnants of the force so decisively beaten at Second Manassas.

In McClellan, the Union Army had a commander who was skilled at organization.

Lee knew that while McClellan hesitated and hallucinated phantom Confederate armies, the Army of Northern Virginia could strike his exposed wing like an avalanche.

On the humid, oppressive afternoon of Thursday, June 26, 1862, the grand counteroffensive opened, igniting the thunderous, blood-soaked drama known to history as the Seven Days Battles.

The campaign began with friction, confusion, and operational failure.

Lee was still new to the style of war, of being in command, dealing with subordinates, issuing orders, all of that.

The Peninsula campaign was over.

Richmond was saved.

The deaths, the casualties of the Seven Days Battles reflect the reality of it.

Staggering, bloody carnage defined this campaign.

Then Stonewall Jackson had a great run, winning battles at McDowell, Fort Royal, and Winchester.

Union forces captured Memphis, Tennessee in May, but then lost a couple more battles to Jackson at Cross Keys and Port Republic.

In Virginia that June, Robert E. Lee and George McClellan fought a series of six battles in seven days, which were called the Seven Day Battles because historians are so good at naming things.

There was a draw at Oak Grove, Union victory at Beaver Dam Creek, a win for Lee at Gaines Mill, ties at Garnet's and Golding's Farms, the Battle of Savage's Stations, and the Battle for Glendale.

Then the Union finally won the Seven Days at Malvern Hill, but McClellan withdrew after the battle, allowing Lee and the remaining Confederates to escape.